I would like to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite moments of the year. I mean that literally.
The miracle in question happens when I receive my shipment of fresh shincha from Japan, unpack it, and cut open the bag. The smell is out of this world. While “richly green and grassy” would certainly appropriate, it doesn’t do it justice. I’ll try another way: If emeralds grew on plants rather than in the bowels of the Earth, this is what their blossoms would smell like. Simply indescribable.
Shincha Dry Leaf - The needle-like shape is peculiar to Japanese teas.
This year’s offering is call Ohashiri shincha and luckily, it is good for more than just smelling. Brewed it is delicious too: grassy and rich with umami. It is interesting to note that shincha was the first green tea I ever had that actually brewed green rather than the usual yellowish color. It’s that fresh. (The real color is more vivid than the picture below shows.) Also, with subsequent infusions, you can watch the liquor yellow as the pigments oxidize. It’s usually good for two or three infusions.
Shincha Liquor - It's even greener in real life.
For those new to shincha, it is a Japanese green tea made only for a couple weeks a year. It is the first set of leaf buds picked during the first plucking of the year, usually in May. The leaves are processed (steamed, rolled, and dried) and then as soon as possible shipped off to expectantly waiting consumers, like myself. I have always gotten my shincha from Japanese Green Tea Online. However, some other tea bloggers seem to like O-Cha, which I admit I have never tried but they seem to have a big selection that looks promising.
On buying shincha: As with all tea, buy the highest quality you feel you can afford. Top grade shincha tends to run on the order of $190 per pound and is sold in 100 g bags (about 3.5 oz.), which I will agree is on the pricey side. Last year I tried the second grade from JGTO and though it was not bad by any means, I would take the top grade any day and pay the premium.
One more note: Drink your shincha as soon after you receive as it degrades over time (with exposure to oxygen and light). While this is true for all teas, shincha’s bursting-with-life, super-freshness is it’s main drawing point and the reason it commands a premium price and these qualities are often the quickest to fade. I drank my last pot’s worth of this year’s batch as I was writing this and it had only a shadow of the green-plant-goodness it had when I received it in June.
Only eight more months until it’s available again.
Ohashiri shincha brewed in a tetsubin.